Minister claims gov won’t give hunger strikers special treatment – how about due process?

David Lammy’s ‘justice’ spokesperson James Timpson has repeated the arrogant refusal of Labour ministers to meet the lawyers and families of the six hunger strikers. The political prisoners in question have already been jailed for a year and a half without trial for opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. They’re part of the ‘Filton 24’ group imprisoned for allegedly damaging an Israeli weapons factory in Bristol that helps Israel slaughter Palestinian civilians.

‘Lord’ Timpson told ITV News that this refusal is because the government doesn’t “treat any prisoners differently from any others”:

This is an outright lie, isn’t it Jimmy? The British government is emphatically not treating the Filton 24 like other prisoners.

Hunger strikers held without trial

The statutory maximum for ‘remand’ in prison before trial is six months. The Filton political prisoners have been held in prison without trial for three times the usual statutory maximum. And, they say that they have frequently been denied access to medical care, lawyers, and family members – remand prisoners are entitled to three visits a week but at least some of the Filton prisoners have been restricted to two a month.

The 24 have not been charged with terrorism offences, but the Starmer regime is using the Terrorism Act to deny them bail. Muslims in the group have been denied access to the Qur’an and prevented from attending prayers or meeting an imam. Other prison inmates have been allegedly threatened with punishment if they help or even comfort members of the Filton group. Bronzefield prison only called an ambulance for dying hunger-striker Qesser Zuhrah after a day-and-night protest by her supporters.

This is not an exhaustive list – but already, none of it is the same as “any other” prisoners, is it mate?

Wrong again

Timpson is also wrong – to put it at its most charitable – when he claims that whether to force feed prisoners is up to the prison system’s medical personnel. As Professor Stephen Vertigans et al noted in February 2025:

The World Medical Association prohibited the use of force-feeding in 1974 in cases where the prisoner is ‘capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment’ when choosing not to eat…

…In the UK, since 1994 prisoners have the legal right to refuse food and sustenance, providing they can demonstrate ‘sanity’ (Silver 2005).

No government minister has even attempted to argue that the Filton hunger strikers are not sane and no right-minded observer would, either. There is nothing insane about protesting against injustice. Timpson’s comment is entirely ignorant. Any medical professional helping the regime to force-feed the hunger-strikers risks professional sanction.

None of this is the same as “any other” prisoner, either.

If Starmer or his lackeys are talking, they’re lying – except if they admit they are committed to Israel’s interests, that bit’s honest – but will still be couched in more lies. War criminals colluding in genocide and waging war on the rights and freedoms of the rest of us to protect that racist, genocidal colony.

Featured image via the Canary